The Watch: Our picks, useful tips, famous timepieces of the screen, and more time-sensitive stuff...

Swiss watchmakers are known to make wild claims about their new creations. Nevertheless, TAG Heuer's announcement that the hands of its new Aquaracer Calibre S go counterclockwise caught our attention. Finally, we thought, a way to get back the two hours we wasted on The Island. Alas, the Aquaracer does not turn back time but rather counts it down. Inspired by the nail-biting ten-minute preamble to a competitive yacht race, wherein skippers count down from the ten-minute gun to zero, the Aquaracer's hands sweep counterclockwise around its face from the ten o'clock position, moving the space normally covered in an hour every minute. When it gets to zero (or twelve o'clock) the watch immediately reverses direction and shifts into traditional chronograph mode to function as a stopwatch. Of course, if you're not steering schooners through icy waters for a living, then you'll simply enjoy the charmingly elegant way it tells time in stainless steel with a gunmetal-gray face or the deep-blue facade shown here. For all its landmark technical innovations, the fact that it never misses a beat while maintaining such beautiful simplicity is reason enough to forgive it for not returning all that precious time lost.

The trick: Clock your speed. How: Good for the mathematically challenged. Using the tachometer on the outside of the dial, time how long it takes to go one mile. If, for example, it takes forty-two seconds, look to the position of the second hand on the watch face and then to the tachometer immediately outside it, which in this case will show the number 85. Your speed, then, is eighty-five miles per hour. Easy. The tool: Platinum-coated stainless-steel Star Tachymeter chronograph ($1,900) by Montblanc.

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The trick: Stop a fight. How: To be done with robust metal watches. Remove watch from wrist. Wrap it around your fist with the watch face on the outside of your knuckles. Clench fist. Give the face of the watch a quick kiss. Then swing for your adversary's jaw. After contact, run like hell. The tool: Titanium Royal Oak Offshore chronograph ($20,200) by Audemars Piguet.

The trick: Get un-lost. How: Use your watch as a crude compass. Hold the watch horizontally and point the hour hand at the sun. Halfway around the bezel between that point and twelve o'clock--moving clockwise in the A.M. hours and counterclockwise in the P.M.--will indicate south. Note: Your watch needs to be telling roughly the correct time. The tool: Stainless-steel Radiomir Base watch with leather strap ($4,050) by Panerai.

The trick: Start a fire. How: Forest legend has it that this works with watches with convex crystals. Drop a few beads of water on the crystal of the watch. Position it so that sunlight is reflected through the water drops and the crystal and onto dry shreds of grass or kindling. The water will magnify the sunlight and cause the dry grass to begin to flame. Be patient, though; if it works, it's going to take a while. The tool: Stainless-steel Bubble watch with crocodile strap ($3,395) by Corum.

A Name You Need to Know:

Parmigiani For those willing to plunk down the price of a house for a wristwatch, the name Parmigiani is a sure thing. It is, after all, one of the few watchmakers in the world that still makes its own movements, building its watches with no borrowed parts. Each of the twenty-five watches it makes per year can take thousands of hours to complete. And they cost a small fortune (from $8,400 to more than $1 million). Pink-gold Grande Complication watch ($346,000) by Parmigiani.

Famous Watches of the Silver Screen

Tinseltown made them famous. You can still buy them. Here, five watches that shine onscreen and off.

The Rolex Submariner

Worn by: Sean Connery in Goldfinger Current price tag: $3,800.

The Oris Modern Classic

Worn by: Keanu Reeves in Constantine Current price tag: $750.

The IWC Mark XV

Worn by: Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky Current price tag: $3,400.

The TAG Heuer Monaco Mark 1

Worn by: Steve McQueen in Le Mans Current price tag: $2,995.

The Omega Speedmaster

Worn by: Tom Hanks in Apollo 13 Current price tag: $2,795.

Try These On:

Who says size doesn't matter? Before you drop coin on a timepiece, cut out the tickers you like most, slap them on your wrist, and take the winner to your retailer.

There are some timepieces that fit all occasions. But they are rare. Very rare. Much more likely is the scenario in which the watch on your wrist must change with the appointment in your schedule.

FOR HIGH ROLLIN'

Black-tie and other expressly formal events call for a discreet and elegant watch that is small in diameter and slim enough to slip in and out of a French cuff. In this scenario, always match the color of your cuff links to the metal of your watch. If the links are enamel or set with stones, go one better and match the stone of the link to the dial color of the watch's face. Wool tuxedo ($695) and cotton shirt ($95) by DKNY; stainless-steel chronograph ($2,100) by Longines; sterling-silver cuff links ($225) by Links of London.

FOR LOUNGIN'

Hang time calls for a big watch to dress up your casual clothes, whether you're in a T-shirt or tweed. Look for a watch in less dressy-looking brushed steel with a chunky body and an interesting face. Bonus points here if the watch's pedigree derives from aviation, sailing, or car racing. Three-button wool jacket ($1,295) by Canali; cashmere sweater ($495) by David Chu; stainless-steel B-42 Cosmonaut GMT watch ($1,700) by Fortis.

FOR WORKIN'

A chunky chronograph in steel or yellow gold makes a bold statement across a conference table. Only you can decide how flashy you should go, but remember to match the links. Two-button wool suit ($695) by Jack Victor; cotton shirt ($295) by Canali; gold Diagono Professional watch ($16,700) and gold Bzerol cuff links ($1,200) by Bulgari; Paragon Snakewood fountain pen ($680) by Omas.

FOR SWEATIN'

You may have a gutsy, top-of-the-line steel chronograph from a great Swiss maker. It may have a host of macho functions, but be sensible and leave it at home. The smart choice here is a durable rubber sports watch that can take a beating. It was made to get twisted and scratched. That fancy metal hardware was not. Down jacket ($398) by RLX Ralph Lauren; resin G-shock watch ($79) by Casio; ski goggles ($110) by Adidas.

The Style Definition(s): Mechanical vs. Quartz

Mechanical: A timepiece whose movement is powered by a mainspring connected to a system of gears, wheels, and weights. The hands of mechanical watches move smoothly around the face. However, because of the high number of moving parts, they gain or lose a few seconds per day and about one hour per year in accuracy. Mechanical watches involve a high degree of craftsmanship and inhabit the upper echelons of watchmaking. See movement at left.

Quartz: Unlike a mechanical watch, a quartz watch has fewer moving parts and is regulated by an electrified sliver of quartz, which vibrates at a constant rate when charged. It is inexpensive to make and exceedingly accurate, losing on average only one minute of accuracy per year. A quartz movement can be identified immediately by following the movement of the watch's hands, which jump from second to second instead of sweeping fiuidly like those of mechanical watches.